The present invention is a system wherein television program-related information (PRI) is embedded in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a television signal for display on a viewer's television screen at the same time as the television program. The PRI is typically contained in an Internet site, the addresses for which are embedded in the television signal. The Internet site addresses may also be transmitted synchronously with, but separate from the video portion, e.g., via an interface device such as a telephone or cable modem. Typically such an “enhanced” television program consists of a display with the video portion of the program in a picture-in-picture (PIP) window and the PRI in the remaining portion of the display area of the television screen.
This PRI may be any textual or graphic information associated with the current television program. The PRI may consist of a textual display of a World Wide Web (WWW) or other Internet site address to which the viewer can choose to link to through a connection with an Internet Service Provider. Alternatively, the PRI may be contained in one or more Web pages, the addresses of which are inserted into the vertical blanking interval (VBI) and are automatically retrieved by the user's terminal and displayed on the display screen. Some examples of PRI are cast members' biographies, trivia about the show, information relating to the particular episode or scene, and closeups of information that cannot be readily seen or is hidden in the video portion of the program. Some of the PRI may be time dependent on the program. For example, the PRI may change to correspond to a particular scene or frame of the television program.
With so much information on the screen, some of which may be changing at a fairly rapid pace, it is desirable to provide the viewer the option of pausing a particular frame of a text-enhanced program display and then resume viewing the program without losing continuity of the video and PRI portions of the program or program content.
In the past fixed delays have been generated to allow broadcast editing. This has been accomplished with video recording. With the increasing availability of low cost semiconductor memory it is desirable to utilize this as a method of variability time-shifting a program. Concurrently other erasable storage means such as magnetic bubble semiconductor memory, erasable optical disks economically provide FIFO storage of large quantities of data that are advantageously utilized in the embodiments of the invention.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a television system is provided which allows a viewer of a PRI-enhanced television program to pause the program at a particular frame, examine the PRI at his or her leisure, perhaps browse through other, linked Web pages, and then resume viewing the program from that frame, without losing continuity of the video and PRI portions of the program or program content.